BACKGROUND: Neither radiological phenotypic characteristics nor reconstruction CT scan has been used to study the early anatomical disruption of the cranial bone in children with the so-called idiopathic type of West syndrome.
METHODS: The basic diagnostic measures and the classical antiepileptic treatments were applied to these children in accordance with the conventional protocol of investigations and treatment for children with West syndrome. Boys from three unrelated families were given the diagnosis of the idiopathic type of West syndrome, aged 7, 10 and 12 years old. Parents underwent extensive clinical examinations. Three parents (age range of 28-41 year) were included in this study. All children showed a history of intellectual disabilities, cryptogenic epileptic spasms and fragmented hypsarrhythmia. These children and their parents were referred to our orthopedic departments because of variable skeletal deformities. Variable forms of skeletal deformities were the motive for the families to seek orthopedic advice. A constellation of flat foot, torticollis and early-onset osteoarthritis were observed by the family doctor. Apparently, and from the first clinical session in our practice, we felt that all these children are manifesting variable forms of abnormal craniofacial contour. Thereby, we immediately performed detailed cranial radiological phenotypic characterization of every affected child, as well as the siblings and parents, and all were enrolled in this study. All affected children underwent whole-exome sequence analysis.
RESULTS: The craniofacial phenotype of all children revealed apparent developmental anatomical disruption of the cranial bones. Palpation of the skull bones showed unusual palpable bony ridges along different sutural locations. A 7-year-old child showed abnormal bulging over the sagittal suture, associated with bilateral bony ridges over the squamosal sutures. AP skull radiograph of a 7-year-old boy with West syndrome showed facial asymmetry with early closure of the metopic suture, and other sutures seemed ill-defined. A 3D reconstruction CT scan of the skull showed early closure of the metopic suture. Another 3D reconstruction CT scan of the skull while the patient was in flexion showed early closure of the squamosal sutures, pressing the brain contents upward, causing the development of a prominent bulge at the top of the mid-sagittal suture. A reformatted 3D reconstruction CT scan confirmed the bilateral closure of the squamosal suture. Examination of the parents revealed a similar skull radiographic abnormality in his mother. A 3D reformatted frontal cranial CT of a 35-year-old mother showed early closure of the metopic and sagittal sutures, causing a mid-sagittal bony bulge. A 10-year-old boy showed an extremely narrow frontal area, facial asymmetry and a well palpable ridge over the lambdoid sutures. A 3D axial reconstruction CT scan of a 10-year-old boy with West syndrome illustrated the asymmetry of the posterior cranial bones along the lambdoid sutures. Interestingly, his 28-year-old mother has been a client at the department of spine surgery since she was 14 years old. A 3D reconstruction CT scan of the mother showed a noticeable bony ridge extending from the metopic suture upwards to involve the sagittal suture (red arrow heads). The black arrow shows a well demarcated bony ridge over the squamosal suture. A 3D reconstruction CT scan of the skull and spine showed the thick bony ridge of the metopic and the anterior sagittal as well as bilateral involvement of the squamosal, causing apparent anterior narrowing of the craniofacial contour. Note the lumbar scoliosis. A 12-year-old boy showed brachycephaly. A lateral skull radiograph of a 12-year-old boy with West syndrome showed premature sutural fusion, begetting an abnormal growth pattern, resulting in cranial deformity. The nature of the deformity depends on which sutures are involved, the time of onset and the sequence in which individual sutures fuse. In this child, brachycephalic secondary to craniosynostosis, which occurred because of bilateral early ossification of the coronal sutures, led to bi-coronal craniosynostosis. Thickened frontal bones and an ossified interclinoid ligament of the sella turcica were encountered. The lateral skull radiograph of a 38-year-old mother with a history of poor schooling achievements showed a very similar cranial contour of brachycephaly, thickening of the frontal bones and massive ossification of the clinoid ligament of the sella turcica. Maternal history revealed a history of multiple spontaneous miscarriages in the first trimester of more than five times. Investigating his parents revealed a brachycephalic mother with borderline intelligence. We affirm that the pattern of inheritance in the three boys was compatible with the X-linked recessive pattern of inheritance. Whole-exome sequencing showed non-definite phenotype/genotype correlation.
CONCLUSIONS: The aim of this study was sixfold: firstly, to refute the common usage of the term idiopathic; secondly, we feel that it could be possible that West syndrome is a symptom complex rather than a separate diagnostic entity; thirdly, to further detect the genetic carrier, we explored the connection between the cranial bones in children with West syndrome with what has been clinically observed in their parents; fourthly, the early life anatomical disruptions of the cranial bones among these children seem to be heterogeneous; fifthly, it shows that the progressive deceleration in the development of this group of children is highly connected to the progressive closure of the cranial sutures; sixthly, we affirm that our findings are novel.

BACKGROUND: Ultrasound-based radiomic features to differentiate between benign and malignant breast lesions with the help of machine learning is currently being researched. The mean echogenicity ratio has been used for the diagnosis of malignant breast lesions. However, gray scale intensity histogram values as a single radiomic feature for the detection of malignant breast lesions using machine learning algorithms have not been explored yet.
OBJECTIVE: This study aims to assess the utility of a simple convolutional neural network in classifying benign and malignant breast lesions using gray scale intensity values of the lesion.
METHODS: An open-access online data set of 200 ultrasonogram breast lesions were collected, and regions of interest were drawn over the lesions. The gray scale intensity values of the lesions were extracted. An input file containing the values and an output file consisting of the breast lesions\' diagnoses were created. The convolutional neural network was trained using the files and tested on the whole data set.
RESULTS: The trained convolutional neural network had an accuracy of 94.5% and a precision of 94%. The sensitivity and specificity were 94.9% and 94.1%, respectively.
CONCLUSIONS: Simple neural networks, which are cheap and easy to use, can be applied to diagnose malignant breast lesions with gray scale intensity values obtained from ultrasonogram images in low-resource settings with minimal personnel.

BACKGROUND: Microcalcification and macrocalcification are critical processes in atherosclerotic plaque progression, though how these processes relate to the risk of stroke recurrence in symptomatic carotid atherosclerosis is poorly understood.
METHODS: We performed a post-hoc analysis of data from the ICARUSS study, where individuals with acute ischemic stroke originating from ipsilateral carotid stenosis of ≥50% underwent 18F-sodium fluoride-positron emission tomography (NaF-PET) to measure microcalcification. Tracer uptake was quantified using maximum tissue-to-background ratio (TBRmax). Macrocalcification was measured on computed tomography (CT) using Agatston scoring. Patients were followed up for six months for recurrent ipsilateral neurovascular events.
RESULTS: Five (27.8%) of 18 individuals had a recurrent ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack. Ipsilateral carotid plaque NaF uptake at baseline was higher in those with recurrent events compared to those without, and this association remained after adjustment for other vascular risk factors (OR 1.24, 1.03-1.50). Macrocalcification score in the symptomatic artery was also significantly independently associated with ipsilateral recurrence, but the effect size was relatively smaller (OR 1.12, 1.06-1.17 for each 100 unit increase).
CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that microcalcification in symptomatic carotid plaques is independently associated with ipsilateral ischemic stroke recurrence. Furthermore, differences in the extent of active microcalcification in macrocalcified plaques may help explain variation in the relationship between calcified carotid plaques and stroke recurrence reported in the literature. Our pilot study indicates that evaluation of carotid artery microcalcification using NaF-PET may be a useful method for risk-stratification of carotid atherosclerosis, though our findings require confirmation in larger cohorts.

Exercise can produce transient elevations of cardiac troponin (cTn) concentrations, which may resemble the cTn release profile of myocardial infarction. Consequently, clinical interpretation of postexercise cTn elevations (ie, values above the 99th percentile upper reference limit) remains challenging and may cause clinical confusion. Therefore, insight into the physiological versus pathological nature of postexercise cTn concentrations is warranted. We aim to (1) establish resting and postexercise reference values for recreational athletes engaged in walking, cycling or running exercise; (2) compare the prevalence of (sub)clinical coronary artery disease in athletes with high versus low postexercise cTn concentrations and (3) determine the association between postexercise cTn concentrations and the incidence of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) and mortality during long-term follow-up. For this purpose, the prospective TRoponin concentrations following Exercise and the Association with cardiovascular ouTcomes (TREAT) observational cohort study was designed to recruit 1500 recreational athletes aged ≥40 to <70 years who will participate in Dutch walking, cycling and running events. Baseline and postexercise high-sensitivity cTnT and cTnI concentrations will be determined. The prevalence and magnitude of coronary atherosclerosis on computed tomography (eg, coronary artery calcium score, plaque type, stenosis degree and CT-derived fractional flow reserve) will be compared between n=100 athletes with high postexercise cTn concentrations vs n=50 age-matched, sex-matched and sport type-matched athletes with low postexercise cTn concentrations. The incidence of MACE and mortality will be assessed in the entire cohort up to 20 years follow-up. The TREAT study will advance our understanding of the clinical significance of exercise-induced cTn elevations in middle-aged and older recreational athletes. Trial registration number NCT06295081.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the demographic characteristics of active physicians, trainees, medical school clinical sciences faculty, and department chairs in radiology with those in other medical specialties.
METHODS: An analysis was conducted using publicly available deidentified aggregate data from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). Our data collection included information from the 2022 AAMC Physician Specialty Data Report, the 2022 AAMC Report on Residents, and the 2022 AAMC Faculty Roster. We examined factors such as graduation country, gender, and self-identified race/ethnicity. MedCalc software was used for the analyses.
RESULTS: Compared to other specialties, active radiologists exhibited a significantly lower percentage of females, International Medical Graduates (IMGs), individuals of American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) descent, Black/African-American individuals, and individuals of Hispanic/Latino/Spanish origin. Conversely, the proportion of White active radiologists was higher. Among radiology trainees, there was a notably lower percentages of females, IMGs, individuals of Black/African-American descent, and individuals of Hispanic/Latino/Spanish origin, while the percentage of Asians was significantly higher. Furthermore, medical school radiology faculty showed a significant lower proportion of females, Black/African-American individuals, Hispanic/Latino/Spanish individuals, and individuals categorized under the white race/ethnicity, with Asians having a higher representation. As radiology department chairs, Asians were noted at significantly lower percentages compared to their proportions among medical school radiology faculty, while Black/African-American individuals were observed at significantly higher percentages in the same comparison.
CONCLUSIONS: This study revealed a notable underrepresentation of females, individuals of Black/African-American descent, and those of Hispanic/Latino/Spanish origin among active radiologists, radiology trainees, and medical school radiology faculty when compared to their counterparts in other medical specialties. Given these findings, further investigation into the underlying causes of these disparities is warranted.

BACKGROUND: Artificial intelligence (AI)-based cancer detectors (CAD) for mammography are starting to be used for breast cancer screening in radiology departments. It is important to understand how AI CAD systems react to benign lesions, especially those that have been subjected to biopsy.
OBJECTIVE: Our goal was to corroborate the hypothesis that women with previous benign biopsy and cytology assessments would subsequently present increased AI CAD abnormality scores even though they remained healthy.
METHODS: This is a retrospective study applying a commercial AI CAD system (Insight MMG, version 1.1.4.3; Lunit Inc) to a cancer-enriched mammography screening data set of 10,889 women (median age 56, range 40-74 years). The AI CAD generated a continuous prediction score for tumor suspicion between 0.00 and 1.00, where 1.00 represented the highest level of suspicion. A binary read (flagged or not flagged) was defined on the basis of a predetermined cutoff threshold (0.40). The flagged median and proportion of AI scores were calculated for women who were healthy, those who had a benign biopsy finding, and those who were diagnosed with breast cancer. For women with a benign biopsy finding, the interval between mammography and the biopsy was used for stratification of AI scores. The effect of increasing age was examined using subgroup analysis and regression modeling.
RESULTS: Of a total of 10,889 women, 234 had a benign biopsy finding before or after screening. The proportions of flagged healthy women were 3.5%, 11%, and 84% for healthy women without a benign biopsy finding, those with a benign biopsy finding, and women with breast cancer, respectively (P<.001). For the 8307 women with complete information, radiologist 1, radiologist 2, and the AI CAD system flagged 8.5%, 6.8%, and 8.5% of examinations of women who had a prior benign biopsy finding. The AI score correlated only with increasing age of the women in the cancer group (P=.01).
CONCLUSIONS: Compared to healthy women without a biopsy, the examined AI CAD system flagged a much larger proportion of women who had or would have a benign biopsy finding based on a radiologist\'s decision. However, the flagging rate was not higher than that for radiologists. Further research should be focused on training the AI CAD system taking prior biopsy information into account.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies assessing the volume of radiological studies rarely considered the corresponding number of images. We aimed to quantify the increases in study and image numbers per radiologist in a tertiary healthcare network to better understand the demands on imaging services.
METHODS: Using the Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS), the number of images per study was obtained for all diagnostic studies reported by in-house radiologists at a tertiary healthcare network in Melbourne, Australia, between January 2009 and December 2022. Payroll data was used to obtain the numbers of full-time equivalent radiologists.
RESULTS: Across all modalities, there were 4,462,702 diagnostic studies and 1,116,311,209 images. The number of monthly studies increased from 17,235 to 35,152 (104%) over the study period. The number of monthly images increased from 1,120,832 to 13,353,056 (1091%), with computed tomography (CT) showing the greatest absolute increase of 9,395,653 images per month (1476%). There was no increase in the monthly studies per full-time equivalent radiologist; however, the number of monthly image slices per radiologist increased 399%, from 48,781 to 243,518 (Kendall Tau correlation coefficient 0.830, P-value < 0.0001).
CONCLUSIONS: The number of monthly images per radiologist increased substantially from 2009 to 2022, despite a relatively constant number of monthly studies per radiologist. Our study suggests that using the number of studies as an isolated fundamental data set underestimates the true radiologist\'s workload. We propose that the increased volume of images examined by individual radiologists may more appropriately reflect true work demand and may add more weight to future workforce planning.

UNASSIGNED: Swift identification and diagnosis of gastrointestinal infections are crucial for prompt treatment, prevention of complications, and reduction of the risk of hospital transmission. The radiological appearance on computed tomography could potentially provide important clues to the etiology of gastrointestinal infections. We aimed to describe features based on computed tomography of patients diagnosed with Campylobacter, Salmonella or Shigella infections in South Sweden.
UNASSIGNED: This was a retrospective observational population-based cohort study conducted between 2019 and 2022 in Skåne, southern Sweden, a region populated by 1.4 million people. Using data from the Department of Clinical Microbiology combined with data from the Department of Radiology, we identified all patients who underwent computed tomography of the abdomen CTA two days before and up to seven days after sampling due to the suspicion of Campylobacter, Salmonella or Shigella during the study period.
UNASSIGNED: A total of 215 CTAs scans performed on 213 patients during the study period were included in the study. The median age of included patients was 45 years (range 11-86 years), and 54% (114/213) of the patients were women. Of the 215 CTAs, 80% (n = 172) had been performed due to Campylobacter and 20% (n = 43) due to Salmonella enteritis. CTA was not performed for any individual diagnosed with Shigella during the study period. There were no statistically significant differences in the radiological presentation of Campylobacter and Salmonella infections.
UNASSIGNED: The most common location of Campylobacter and Salmonella infections was the cecum, followed by the ascending colon. Enteric wall edema, contrast loading of the affected mucosa, and enteric fat stranding are typical features of both infections. The CTA characteristics of Campylobacter and Salmonella are similar, and cannot be used to reliably differentiate between different infectious etiologies.

Radiology has become a fundamental constituent of the modern medicine. However, it has been observed that medical students in Pakistan often lack sufficient guidance and education in this field. This study aims to establish whether Pakistani medical students possess the requisite basic knowledge required in radiology and their attitude and perception toward radiology as a potential career path. This cross-sectional study conducted a survey among 530 medical students of Pakistan via a self-reported online questionnaire from August 01, 2021 to September 01, 2021. The data collected were analyzed using the SPSS software, along with logistic regression analyses to identify factors associated with interest in pursuing radiology as a career and possessing a comprehensive understanding of radiology among medical students. Of the 530 participants, 44.2% rated their understanding of radiology as \"poor\" with only 17% indicating interest to pursue a career in radiology. Logistic regression model showed significantly higher odds of radiology as a career among males (Crude odds ratio [COR] = 1.78, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.17-2.72, P = .007), medical students of Punjab (COR = 1.55, 95% CI = 1.01-2.40, P = .048), and those, who self-reported their knowledge of radiology as excellent (COR = 14.35, 95% CI = 5.13-40.12, P < .001). In contrast, medical students from Punjab (COR = 0.504, 95% CI = 0.344-0.737, P < .001) and second-year medical students (COR = 0.046, 95% CI = 0.019-0.107, P < .001) had lower odds of good knowledge. Our study suggests that the medical student\'s knowledge of radiology is deficient. Thus, it is advised that radiological societies work with medical school boards to integrate thorough and early radiology exposure into the undergraduate curriculum.

The maxilla occupies a key position in dentofacial orthopaedics, since its transversal development can be directly influenced by orthodontic therapy. The maturation stages of the mid-palatal suture, which are obtained from cone-beam computed tomography images (CBCT), present an addition to clinical decision-making in transversal discrepancies of the upper jaw. In an endeavour to reduce ionizing radiation in adolescents and young adults, who are particularly susceptible to long term stochastic irradiation effects, we investigated the feasibility of 3 Tesla (3T) MRI in detecting the maturation stages of the mid-palatal suture. A collective of 30 patients aged 24-93 years with routine neck MRI at 3T, underwent an additional three-dimensional isotropic T1 weighted study sequence of the midface. Image evaluation was performed on axial, multi-planar formatted reconstructions of the dataset aligned to the midline axis of the palate, and curved reconstructions aligned to the concavity of the palate. Inverted images helped to achieve an image impression similar to the well-known CBCT appearance. All datasets were reviewed by three readers and mid-palatal maturation was scored twice according to Angelieri et al. Intra- and inter-rater agreement were evaluated to measure the robustness of the images for clinical evaluation. 3T MRI deemed reliable for the assessment of mid-palatal suture maturation and hence for the appraisal of the hard palate and its adjacent sutures. The data of this pilot study display the feasibility of non-ionizing cross-sectional MRI for the determination of sutural maturation stages. These findings underline the potential of MRI for orthodontic treatment planning, further contributing to the avoidance of unnecessary radiation doses.